1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an article file control system for controlling article files in a large-scale retail shop, and more particularly to an article file control system in which an article file for articles of a single department is controlled at each sales counter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a large-scale retail shop such as a super market, a plurality of electronic weighing and pricing devices (EWPDs) are arranged for respective sales counters of article departments of meat, fish, cheese and the like. Each of the EWPDs is used to measure the weight of a sales article and derives the price of the article by multiplying the measured weight by the unit price thereof for unit weight. The thus derived price is printed on a label together with the article name, unit price and weight thereof, for example, and attached to the sales article.
The conventional article file control system includes a host computer connected to a plurality of EWPDs via a communication cable. The host computer has a master article file comprising article data of various department articles including items such as article codes, department codes, article names and unit prices and supplies part of the various article data contained in the master article file to all of the EWPDs for each article department. Each of the EWPDs controls the article data of a single article department supplied from the host computer as a department article file and informs the host computer of sales data which is obtained as the result of the label issuing process effected based on the department article file. Further, when article data (for example, unit price) of an article is changed in the master article file, the article data is supplied as changed data to all of the EWPDs arranged in the sales counter dealing with the article and the changed data is stored into the department article file instead of the previous article data of the article.
The host computer transmits a request signal for requesting data reception to the EWPD, receives an acknowledge signal transmitted from the EWPD when the request is acknowledged, and transmits data after receiving the acknowledge signal. In the above bi-directional communication, it is impossible to simultaneously supply article data of articles from the host computer to all of the EWPDs arranged in the sales counter dealing with the articles. For this reason, the host computer sequentially supplies the article data to all of the EWPDs.
In the conventional article file controlling system, supply of the article data of common articles by the host computer must be repeatedly effected by a number of times corresponding to the number of EWPDs provided in the sales counter dealing with the articles. Further, the host computer is generally installed in an office lying at a far distance from the sales counters and the cost for installation and maintenance of the communication cable becomes high. When sales counters of a plurality of departments are re-arranged, the arrangement of the communication cable must be changed.